musical theatre training

putting it together

Musical Adaptations

he first graduate from one of the

oldest musical theatre programs in the country hopped on
a Greyhound bus, her tap shoes in her suitcase, and traveled to New York City. Soon after, she made her Broadway debut in a little-known musical by a composer she hadnt heard
of and earned a Tony nomination for her performance in 1971.
Though Pamela Myerss Cinderella-like journey from a student at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Musics (CCM) musical theatre program to the role of Marta in the Stephen Sondheim
show Company is every musical theatre kids dream, it is not something the programs current chairman, Aubrey Berg, encourages for
his students anymore. I think for anybody to do that nowadays is
pretty much impossible, says Berg. You cant just arrive at the Port
Authority with your suitcase and hope to be discovered.
Instead of encouraging students to follow this old script, programs are now aiming to prepare students for the current market, in
which actors increasingly write their own shows, classically trained
singers must master hip-hop dance breaks, and dancers are expected
to act. From performance to playwriting, it is the interdisciplinary
artist that is now the goal of educators. While CCM had Myerss
career to hang its hat on when Berg arrived there more than 30 years

ago, he began to notice that students needed further training in acting and dance beyond just voice. He now says that the program is
known for its triple-threat training.
But even the old singing/dancing/acting triumvirate has
expanded, as programs such as Pace University of NYCs musical
theatre program are now training their actors to follow the hyphenated lead of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Dave Malloy. And at some
playwriting programs, students are being taught to follow the footsteps of writers like Marsha Norman and Sybille Pearson in crafting books for musicals as well as plays. Meanwhile some music conservatories are finding ways for vocal performance majors to expand
their skill sets. After all, look at the path of two classically trained
singers, Kelli OHara and Kristin Chenoweth.
David Gomez was attracted to Pace Universitys
program because of the freedom it allows students to create their
own work. Gomez wrote a musical in high school and hoped to continue on that track on top of his performance coursework at Pace.
Not long after arriving at Pace, he found other performance majors
with the same writing habit.
It felt like a dirty secret, Gomez says. We would meet in

28 AMERICANTHEATRE JANUARY1 7

Musical theatre artists are no longer just actors,

writers, or singers, and schools are finding new ways
to train them
By M ag g i e G i l r oy

Isaak Berliner

practice rooms and share our songs. Some people were just songwriters, and we eventually formed this collective need to share stories and songs.
His music theory teacher, Ryan Scott Oliver, recognized the
impulse: He also performs as well as writes. So the composer/lyricist
crafted a two-part fundamentals in musical theatre writing course for
those students. It helps them understand what it means, how a piece
is constructed, Oliver says. All that can guide them as actors once
they understand what the writer is dealing with, once they understand what their process is.
Gomez was a sophomore when the class began with 12 students
in the first semester, and he wrote for his performing peers, including
for a freshman showcase called Hatched. While Gomez remained
a performance-based musical theatre major, he entered New York
Universitys graduate musical theatre writing program immediately
after graduating from Pace in 2014 and completed an MFA in musical theatre writing in May 2016.
I was fortunate to be in two programs that were very eager to
grow and have changed a lot, Gomez says. Being in a program that

doesnt have a musical theatre [writing] program when you arrive and
then does when you leave, then theres almost this legacy of that.
The interest is only growing. Paces course, currently in its
fifth year, grew to 30 students during the fall 2016 semester. That
really speaks to the interest of the students in what we do and how
we develop work, Oliver adds.
While the course has inspired students such as Gomez to shift
their career paths to writing, other students have combined their performance career with their writing. Like Gomez, Kailey Marshall
was a musical theatre major when she enrolled in Olivers course,
and her writing became an integral component of her performance
career. She wrote her song cycle Songs for Slutty Girls, in which she
also stars, while she was at Pace, and since graduating in 2015, she
has continued to revise the show and hopes to produce it again.
Its teaching musical theatre kids that you as a performer, and
you as a person, can do so much more than just that, says Marshall.
I would have never known that I wanted to write for musical thea
tre unless Id gone to Pace.
Performers are putting pen to paper at training grounds beyond

Students take class on the beach at the Eugene ONeill Theater Centers National Music Theater Institute.
JANUARY17 AMERICANTHEATRE

29

Although Sybille Pearson began her career

writing plays, she was asked to write the libretto for Baby, which
would open on Broadway in 1983. That first crack at writing a musical turned out to be a success and earned her a Tony nomination, catalyzing the crossover from playwright to book writer. I dont think
my journey is that unusual, Pearson says.
Indeed the lines between playwright and book writer are now
blurred, both on Broadway and in the classroom. Pearson joined the
faculty of NYUs graduate musical theatre writing program shortly
after gaining acclaim for Baby, and she still teaches there.
I dont often work with already established book writers,
Pearson says. Mainly the group that musical theatre book writers come from are playwrights. Even in strict playwriting courses
that focus on creating non-musical works, Pearson lets book writing leak in. Just to stay solely in playwriting is not terribly helpful
in the end, because you really have to start understanding the differences, she says.
Pearsons NYU colleague Donna Di Novelli has also taught
at NMTI (previously serving as a guest mentor during Playwrights
and Librettists Week), and she too has seen an interest surge in playwrights aspiring to be musical book writers. It goes back to Aristotle, right? Di Novelli says. Aristotle had music as one of his components of drama.
Although the Yale playwriting MFA is within the Yale School
of Drama, quite apart from Yales undergraduate Shen Curriculum
for Musical Theater, established in 2006, MFA playwriting students there are required to take the curriculums courses in lyric
and book writing.
It is important for writers who are interested in a career as professional writers, professional playwrights writing for other media,

that they be aware of, trained in, and understand the importance of
musical theatre as an art form, says Jennifer Kiger, a lecturer in the
playwriting program.
Many graduates of the Yale School of Drama have accordingly
crossed disciplines during the course of their career. While Roberto

Sainty Nelsen, Chris McCArrell, Jonathan Walker White, and Chelsea Gidden
in Rent at Baldwin Wallace University in 2011.

Aguirre-Sacasa wrote the book for Broadways American Psycho, he is

also the executive producer of the upcoming TV show Riverdale,
which premieres on the CW this year, and hes the author of such
plays as Abigail/1702.
Kiger is also the associate artistic director of Yale Repertory
Theatre and the director of new play programs at Yales Binger Center for New Theatre, where she oversees commissions as well as
new-play development. Kiger says shes noticed an increased interest among playwrights who either want to write a musical or otherwise incorporate music into their new work. Perhaps people dont
want to be put in a box, she suggests. If youre a theatre artist,
youre a creative artist. You want to be able to create work and do it
in lots of different ways.
Is this indicative of a larger trend of playwrights wanting to venture into musical theatre, or are there simply more resources dedicated to the development of musicals and musical theatre education
programs now? Im not sure that all of a sudden people want to make
music theatre, Kiger says. Maybe theres just more of a sense of how
important it is to offer resources and training for people so that the
next generation of artists can come along and put their stamp on it.
Two of Oklahoma City Universitys most famous
alums, Kelli OHara and Kristin Chenoweth, hold vocal performance degrees from the school. Since the pair graduated, the program, which offers a bachelor of music in music theatre, has put an
emphasis on the triple threat and even added a New York City showcase, allowing seniors to perform in front of agents before they venture into the business.
We know we have to prepare our students to be nimble and
adapt to whatever the current market is, says David Herendeen, the
director of the opera and music theatre program at OCU and a former professor of OHaras. Kelli is a really good example of somebody that paid attention to the industry and what it was demanding.
Meanwhile back at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of

30 AMERICANTHEATRE JANUARY1 7

Ben Meadors Photography/Baldwin Wallace University

the traditional college theatre setting. During the National Music

Theater Institute semester at the Eugene ONeill Theater Center in
Waterford, Conn.added to the National Theater Institute three
years agostudents participate in every aspect of the theatre process, including writing.
NMTI makes up one term of NTIs six-semester
program, which allows students with a minimum of a
high-school diploma or GED to receive training. Students who complete the program can earn college credits, which are honored at Connecticut College. While
some students use the institute as a gap year between
high school and college, others jump straight into their
professional career after completing the program.
By the end of the 14-week NMTI semester, students
will each have written a one-act musical. NMTIs 46 students put on four one-acts a day during Playwrights and
Librettists Week, and many of the students choose to
produce a musical during that week. During the week,
students form a repertory company, rotating their creative positions (producer, director, costume designer, etc.)
every six hours to produce four new one-acts a day. The
one-acts are written by every NMTI student throughout the semester and are overseen by guest mentors.
We dont want them waiting for the phone to
ring, says NTI artistic director Rachel Jett, who holds an MFA
from NYUs graduate musical theatre writing program. We want
them to make work if they want to; thats why we encourage that.

Josh Sanchez

Josh Sanchez

T Charles Erickson
Mara Lavitt

Clockwise from top left: Students MandaLeigh Blunt and David Mahoney and faculty Donna DiNovelli, Fred Carl, and Sarah Schlesinger at New York
Universitys graduate musical theatre writing program; Melissa Miles practices at NYU; Phillip Howze and Jessica Holt at the Yale School of Drama;
a Yale workshop of student Phillip Howzes The Children.

Music, the venerable musical theatre program is adapting to the

new world as well. Established within a music conservatory by Helen
Laird in 1968, it began by preparing students for careers in musical theatre primarily by offering them classical vocal training, but
Laird was noticing that the kids needed a lot more than just a great
voice, as program director Aubrey Berg puts it. Hence the decision to establish a musical theatre program within the conservatory.
When Berg took over the leadership of the program, though, it
still lacked training in dance and acting. The big word that we use
here is integration, Berg says. We like them to be able to move
very fluidly from one mode of expression to another. I always say
that if I had a T-shirt it would say: Sing while you act, act while you
sing, dance when your character needs to.
One of the first changes Berg made was to create a more rigorous acting curriculum and extend acting courses to a four-year cycle
of classes. I think the basis of good musical theatre performers is
that it comes from the acting, Berg says. Its the glue that holds all
the elements together.
In addition to more extensive acting courses, Berg added training in the practicalities of the business, including audition techniques
and, as Berg phrases it, the business side of show business. In short,
the days of the wide-eyed graduate arriving in New York with just
tap shoes and a suitcase are no longer.
When they move to New York you want them to have their
childlike sense of creativity and bliss, but you also want them to go
with their eyes wide open because its a very, very tough profession, Berg says.
Meanwhile in Berea, Ohio, another school has adapted to the
changing marketplace, though in a slightly different way. At Baldwin Wallace Universitys Conservatory of Music, musical theatre students take an additional year of music theory and piano and graduJANUARY17 AMERICANTHEATRE

ate with a bachelor of music in musical theatre rather than a bachelor of fine arts, since the latter degree doesnt exist at the conservatory. The program has morphed in other ways: Seven years ago, it
beefed up the dance curriculum, scheduling additional dance classes
and making all dance classes longer. Students now participate in
ballet boot camp, which consists of 7 a.m. ballet classes four days
a week. Still, the central emphasis is on the musical part of musical theatre. As program director Victoria Bussert puts it, Our students have advanced musical training that has served them very well
in making their careers.
While each musical theatre program has a different approach,
all agree on one thing: The fact that musical theatre is changing is
not really a change at all.
We cant help but be sensitive to it because were neck deep
in it, NYUs Bernstein says. As opposed to academics who might
have once been involved but are no longer, or are far afield from
New York City, the sort of epicenter of whats going on. Because the
form is so rapidly shifting, it seems to me, you can be out of touch if
youre not careful.
The process has a built-in feedback loop: After the professors
contribute to the current landscape of theatre, they go back and bring
their knowledge and experience to the classroom. And their students
go on to create new work, driving shifts in the landscape and adding to the current canon, requiring their professors to go back and
redraft their curriculum once more.
The greater your skill set, the more employable you are,
says Berg. Even more important, he adds, the more interesting
the works are.
Maggie Gilroy, a former intern of this magazine, is a news
reporter for The Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y.
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